University of Washington Allows Monkey to Starve

A male pig-tailed macaque housed at the University of Washington’s National Primate Research Center died last year after losing a quarter of his body weight. A September 2009 U.S. Department of Agriculture report found that the animal had not been weighed in more than two months, twice as long as required by the university’s own protocols.

The University of Washington’s (UW’s) primate center is one of eight federal primate centers in the nation. This is not the first time UW has come under scrutiny for its animal research centers. A UW primate-breeding center near Spokane was closed in 1995 after five baboons died of cold-weather exposure or thirst. In 2005, three rooms in a UW facility reached 104 degrees Fahrenheit, killing more than 500 mice. And in 2006, the university was put on probation after inspectors from the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care found “serious deficiencies” in the facilities.